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Water Footprint Calculator

What Is Your Water Footprint?

Take a water tour with us through your home, yard, diet, energy, and consumer choices! Then, pledge to cut your water footprint and help return more water to rivers, lakes, wetlands, underground aquifers, and freshwater species.

Know this: The average American lifestyle is kept afloat by about 2,000 gallons of H2O a day—twice the global average.

The bright side: By pledging to cut your water footprint, you can help restore freshwater ecosystems.

Float along with us through your kitchen, closet, and daily routine to figure out your water footprint. Then pledge to shrink your footprint by 20% and qualify to win great prizes from the Expedition Blue Planet. The more we save, the more water we leave for healthy ecosystems and a sustainable future.

The water it takes to produce the average American diet alone—approximately 1,000 gallons per person per day—is more than the global average water footprint of 900 gallons per person per day for diet, household use, transportation, energy, and the consumption of material goods.

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Diet

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Great start. In the next section, we'll show you that a whopping 50% or more of your water footprint goes to grow and process the food an average American eats every day. Meat and dairy stand out as being some of the most water-intensive fare. Dare to carry on? Let's do it.

The water it takes to produce the average American diet alone—approximately 1,000 gallons per person per day—is more than the global average water footprint of 900 gallons per person per day for diet, household use, transportation, energy, and the consumption of material goods.

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Energy

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Water is used to produce the fuels that keep us moving and our planet humming. A gallon of gasoline, for example, requires nearly 13 gallons of H2O to produce. The average American relies on nearly 670 gallons of water a day just for electricity production. So, let's find out how much water you're using to fuel your life!

The water footprint of your daily electricity use takes into account only water withdrawals for thermoelectric power production. It is based on average withdrawals by state, which can vary greatly depending on whether thermoelectric plants use once-through or recirculating cooling systems. If you live in a state mostly using hydroelectric power we're probably underestimating your footprint.

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Stuff and Services

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Are you a big shopper? Everything we buy requires water to make. Electronics, cotton, and paper are some of the most water-intensive products. In addition, restaurants, post offices, hospitals, and more, also have water footprints that we share. Ready to find out how much water you're gobbling up with the things you buy? Let's do it!

It takes around 700 gallons of water to make a cotton shirt, and 2,600 gallons to make a pair of jeans — most of them to grow the cotton. On average, every dollar you spend on clothes and shoes costs about 23 gallons of water!

On average, 10 gallons per day of your water footprint (or 14% of your indoor use) is lost to leaks. Short of installing new water-efficient fixtures, one of the easiest, most effective ways to cut your footprint is by repairing leaky faucets and toilets.

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Bathroom

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The average American takes about 5 showers a week. How many do you take in a week?

Dishwashing is a relatively small part of your water footprint—less than 2% of indoor use—but there are always ways to conserve. Using a machine is actually more water efficient than hand washing, especially if you run full loads.

Depending on the size of your lawn and whether you live in a dry region of the country, you could be using hundreds of gallons a week to keep your grass green. Save by collecting water in a rain barrel and using this instead of treated public water on your lawn.

That quarter pounder is worth more than 30 average American showers. One of the easiest ways to slim your water footprint is to eat less meat and dairy. Another way is to choose grass-fed, rather than grain-fed, since it can take a lot of water to grow corn and other feed crops.

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Diet

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Raising and processing poultry also requires water—about 88 gallons per serving (3 ounces). The average person eats 7 servings of poultry a week. Do you eat more or less?

A serving of poultry costs about 90 gallons of water to produce. There are also water costs embedded in the transportation of food (gasoline costs water to make). So, consider how far your food has to travel, and buy local to cut your water footprint.

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Diet

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It shouldn't come as a surprise now to learn that it takes about 108 gallons of water to produce a serving (3 ounces) of pork. The average American eats about 6 servings of pork a week. Do you eat more or less?

It takes about 100 gallons of water to grow and process a single pound of cotton, and the average American goes through about 35 pounds of new cotton material each year. Do you really need that additional T-shirt?

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Stuff and Services

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The average American spends about $1,600 a year to furnish a home. How about you? Include furniture, flooring, lighting, appliances, window coverings, and so on.

Recycling a pound of paper, less than the weight of your average newspaper, saves about 3.5 gallons of water. Buying recycled paper products saves water too, as it takes about six gallons of water to produce a dollar's worth of paper.

Thank you for your pledge! You're making a difference!

You have pledged gallons daily. By cutting gallons daily, you are pledging to cut your water footprint by

TOTAL PLEDGES SO FAR

TOTAL DAILY GALLONS SAVED

gallons is enough to supply nearly Americans with indoor household water for a day.

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Help Save the Colorado River

You can help restore freshwater ecosystems by pledging to cut your water footprint. For every pledge, Change the Course will restore 1,000 gallons back to the Colorado River.

Every Drop Counts!

We live in a watery world, with the average American lifestyle fueled by nearly 2,000 gallons of H2O a day.

What may come as a surprise is that very little of that—only five percent—runs through toilets, taps, and garden hoses at home. Nearly 95 percent of your water footprint is hidden in the food you eat, energy you use, products you buy, and services you rely on.

Find out your water footprint, then pledge to dry it out, joining other nationalgeographic.com users who have already committed to saving thousands of gallons.

The more we save, the more water we leave for healthy ecosystems and a sustainable future.